Hey guys, welcome back to the channel! Today we'll be looking at another airport for our
future of airports series, Los Angeles International Airport. Being the fourth busiest airport
in the world and the United States’ second, LAX is a sprawling giant that hosted almost
90 million passengers in 2019. However, even though the airport has significant traffic,
the condition of the airport leaves much to be desired, and it will need a serious facelift
to match its internationally renowned status. Fortunately, with the Landside Access Modernization
Project and other expansion projects, the future of LAX looks wonderful, and we can’t
wait to see all of it ourselves. Let’s get started!
[Intro]
Before we start talking about the expansions coming to Los Angeles International Airport
in the future, let’s take a look at the lands and areas that the airport sits on.
LAX is located 18 miles, or 30 kilometers southwest of downtown los angeles, right on
the coastline of california, and nestled in between the Westchester, El Segundo, and Inglewood
neighbourhoods. These are the rough borders of the airport,
covering 3,500 acres of land.
The first thing to note about any airport is, obviously, the runways and taxiways, since
those are essential to planes actually getting in, out, and around the airport. LAX has four
parallel east-west runways indicated in blue on this map, as well as a series of taxiways
that provide planes with access between the runways and terminals.
Currently, LAX sports 9 passenger terminals including the Tom Bradley international terminal
off to the west, and they are connected either through overground passages, underground tunnels,
or shuttle buses. However, only the TBIT and terminals 4-8 are connected airside, which
means that, in order to get to any other terminal from terminals 1-3, you must exit security
first, which is quite unfortunate.
As you might know, the Tom Bradley international terminal has recently gone through the 4 billion
dollar Bradley West upgrades project in 2014, which added over 1,250,000 square feet (116,000
m2) of shops, restaurants, and passenger lounges, as well as improving security screening facilities
and measures all around.
And of course, we should mention that there is another passenger terminal not in the main
U of the airport, and that is the small regional terminal on the east side of terminal 8 that
is used exclusively for American Eagle flights, which earned it the nickname of the “Eagle’s Nest”.
Next up, let’s take a look at the roadways that passengers can use to drive into the
airport, which I know Californians love to do. The main roadways worth mentioning include
the north south Sepulveda Boulevard in the middle of the airport cutting the runways
in half, the east-west Interstate 105 that runs just south of the airport, as well as
the north south Interstate 405 passing by the airport on the east side.
As for the flip side of driving to the airport, LAX does need a lot of parking to accommodate
the traffic. Short term parking is nestled in the bend of the U, long term parking off
to the southeast end of the airport, as well as a cellphone lot at the eastern gateway
of the terminals.
If you don’t want to drive, you can take a number of buses that unfortunately do not
stop quite close enough to the passenger terminals. There is also a FlyAway shuttle bus service
run by the LAWA that takes you from five different terminals directly to LAX, and these include
the Van Nuys Airport, Los Angeles Union Station, UCLA, Hollywood, and Long Beach. The nearest
Metro Rail line to the airport currently is the Green Line, and you can get a free shuttle
bus connection from Aviation/LAX station to the airport if you decide to do that.
Alright, so this is the current passenger facility situation here in Los Angeles International
Airport. There definitely are a lot of car centric facilities here, so without a car
it really must be a pain to get to the airport. Now, let’s move onto the future expansions
that will be coming to LAX in the future, as part of the Los Angeles World Airports’
LAX modernization plan.
Let’s start by looking closer at the passenger terminals and the changes coming to them.
We’ve already covered the Tom Bradley International terminal, which is, in itself, already quite
a big addition to the airport and a very welcome one.
The next major addition to the airport will be the midfield satellite concourse, which
is scheduled to hopefully open sometime this year. This concourse will be a part of the
Tom Bradley International Terminal, located immediately west of it and connected with
an underground tunnel. With construction started in 2017, the new concourse will bring 12 new
gates to the airport, reducing the need for outdoor gates, and taking on traffic while
other terminal upgrades are on the way. The construction seems to be well on its way to
being finished, with testing beginning soon, and it will be an exciting addition to the
airport coming this summer.
Next up, we have a recently proposed expansion plan that will bring a new terminal and a
new concourse to the airport, which was released about a year ago. The new east terminal 9
will be located on the east side of sepulveda blvd, taking over the space where the Eagle’s
Nest was, bringing new gates, security screening facilities, and parking to the airport. This
terminal will also be connected to the central terminal U area with a pedestrian bridge over
sepulveda blvd, so there is no need for passengers to take a shuttle bus.
The other part of this is concourse 0, which is an expansion to the current terminal 1
on its east side. This will be a four-level, nine-gate expansion to the terminal, expanding
the facility by 745 thousand square feet.
These new expansions are currently in early planning stages, so we don’t really have
any dates of when construction will start or when precisely the new facilities will
be open, but the goal is for them to open before the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics,
so that they will be there for the influx of travellers then.
And this wraps up the terminal expansions. Next up, let’s take a look at other interesting
facilities coming to the airport in the future as part of the Landside Access Modernization
Project, which will hopefully make LAX much nicer to fly in or out at.
First up, there will be a new Consolidated Rent-A-Car facility to the east side of the
airport, relocating over 20 existing rental car locations scattered around the airport
area into one convenient location adjacent to Interstate 405. This will be very useful
for tourists wanting to drive into the city. Construction began last year, with LAWA planning
for the facility to be operational in 2023.
Another part of the LAMP plan is the Intermodal Transportation Facility, providing parking,
drop off/pick up locations, as well as bus connections in convenient locations on airport
grounds. The West facility is by far the bigger one, featuring 4700 parking stalls, 5000 square
feet of concession space, and the LAX Security and Badging Office that will service the 50000
plus badged employees working at the airport. This will be the first major component of
the Landside Access modernization Program to be completed, and it is expected to open
in 2021. There is also the ITF-east facility, which is a similar, albeit much smaller facility
located on the west end of the ConRAC.
And last but not least, we have the very exciting and important transit expansions that will
connect LAX much better, not just to LA, but also within itself.
There will be a new LA Metro Rail line called the Crenshaw/LAX line that is coming to the
area very soon. This new metro line, as the name suggests, will bring more transit connection
to the airport itself, covering the north south orientation of the airport on its east
side. The 8 station line will be 8.5 miles, or 13.7 kilometers long, and it will connect
the crenshaw neighbourhood to the city of inglewood and LAX, and it will also make a
transfer at Aviation/LAX to the green line, and a transfer at Expo/Crenshaw to the Expo
line. Construction has been underway since 2014, and service is expected to begin by
mid-2020.
And perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle that will bring the whole expansion
plan together, is the Automated People Mover, an airport train that will finally provide
some resemblance of proper connection throughout the airport, and connect the passenger terminals
to the new facilities that we mentioned earlier. The train will have 6 stations in total: three
in the central U connecting the passenger terminals, one at ITF-west, one at ITF-east
and the Crenshaw line, and terminating at the ConRAC facility. The APM is already in
construction, with a projected completion date of 2022. With the train in place, getting
to and from LAX should finally be relatively less painful, and transit riders would not
need to sit in traffic on shuttle buses, probably prompting more people to take transit in the
first place.
LAX will be getting some super exciting upgrades in the future, and even though we live nowhere
near it and never really go through the airport at all, we are still super stoked about one
of the largest airports in the world getting the proper expansions and transit connection
it so desperately needs. If you enjoyed this video, like, subscribe,
and comment down below to tell us what you think about the expansions coming to LAX,
whether we missed anything important, or if there are any other airports you would like
us to take a look at in our future videos. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and support
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Thanks for watching, and we'll see you in the next one.
[Music]